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Reunion

This episode is a little different: Worf gets a kid. It changes a lot of things and it’s really scary for everyone, but luckily, it’s forgotten by the next episode.

I gripe about post-Season 2 TNG, but I feel like this one really hit all the goalposts for being intelligent, emotional, action-packed, and having a science fiction idea buried in there (someone’s arm, specifically).

I assume could K’Ehleyr have survived? Should Alexander have stayed around? For being such a big deal, there are no actual consequences for the immediate future.

Jay Donks is this week’s guest host. You can find him on Twitter as @SimbadGaming and on his website, simbadgaming.com.

I mention K’Ehleyr fighting as an example of how keeping her alive screws up Worf’s protagonization. I don’t think we can keep both protagonized without stretching this to a two-parter. It’s a good, tight episode without a ton of room for changes.

In both podcasts you question why Picard would be upset with Worf. So however sure we are that Dumas was responsible for poisoning K’mpec, Picard still hasn’t ruled Gowron out, and Worf ends up doing for Gowron what Dumas was trying to do for himself. Picard promised Federation impartiality to K’mpec and Worf seems to have violated both the spirit and letter of that diplomatic mission.

That’s a good point. The Klingon Civil War is evidence that the succession didn’t go well. Some of that HAD to be the Klingon political/cultural system of using power to determine prominence, but any pretenses to discredit the process add some more straws to that camel’s back. But he doesn’t say any of that. He just says that Worf let his personal culture interfere in his Starfleet duties to serve Picard’s mission which was already outside the scope of Starfleet’s duties by acting as a member of Worf’s culture.

I mean, we’ve got four ‘ideal’ outcomes: Duras/Gowron poisoned K’mpec(Dp/Gp) and Duras/Gowron is appointed by Picard (Da/Ga).

I think any non-Da result still brings a civil war as Duras’ guy had a Romulan explosive and his family later has Romulan support. Not to extend the metaphor too far, but Picard is a fine pretense to declare that the selection process was ‘rigged against him.’ Even in the corner case where the Romulans or the Duras sisters set up the explosion without Duras’ knowledge, he’s still in pretty deep.

The Da/Gp result is straightforward. Duras is the new Chancellor and then there’s an eventual Romulan/Klingon alliance against The Federation. The Klingon Empire becomes an aggressive, expansionist empire again and if they’re not going to become–for lack of a better phrase–as Western democracy, then that’s the best for them.

Finally, there’s the longshot Da/Dp. Duras poisons K’mpec, explodes a dude with a Romulan explosive, kills K’Ehleyr, is an asshole, and Picard is like: “You’re a terrible choice for The Federation, but the best choice for the Empire” and does the integrity thing over his own interests. Alternatively, maybe there’s ANOTHER moral compromise to hold the Empire together and everyone goes home with a bitter taste in their mouth.

In either case where Duras wins, unless Gowron somehow gets enough evidence–;)–to turn most of the Empire’s families against Duras AND exposes his Romulan connections, Duras crushes any armed resistance to his rule (either by defeating Gowron fairly or by failing to do that, but then pulling in Romulan connections).

Is this arbitration outside the scope of what the Klingons can ask of the Federation? K’mpec might not have used proper channels (although I think K’Ehleyr counts as “proper channels”), but the Federation and Empire are allies, and I would think the whole matter falls under K’Ehleyr’s jurisdiction. (Which I suppose just transforms the question from, what can a Klingon Chancellor ask of the flagship’s captain, to what can a Federation Ambassador ask of the flagship’s captain.)

If I remember the civil war episodes rightly, the balance of power rested with unaffiliated moderates rather than either side’s loyalists; so if Duras had survived, I think that pinning the poisoning on him should’ve ruined his family’s ability to sway a winning number to his side. Which isn’t to say I think Picard was thinking that far ahead; I almost want to tie his umbrage here to the …nationalism? chauvinism?… he displayed early in TNG.